Media Issues Discussions - Atheist Nexus2016-12-09T13:53:38Zhttp://atheistnexus.org/group/mediaissues/forum?groupUrl=mediaissues&feed=yes&xn_auth=noInterview with Fake News entrepreneurtag:atheistnexus.org,2016-11-26:2182797:Topic:27205152016-11-26T04:03:39.056ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>NPR provides a fascinating first hand account of the US fake news industry.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbs" target="_blank">We Tracked Down A Fake-News Creator In The Suburbs. Here's What We Learned</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The whole idea from the start was to build a site that could infiltrate the echo chambers of the alt-right, publish blatantly false or fictional stories and…</p>
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<p>NPR provides a fascinating first hand account of the US fake news industry.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbs" target="_blank">We Tracked Down A Fake-News Creator In The Suburbs. Here's What We Learned</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The whole idea from the start was to build a site that could infiltrate the echo chambers of the alt-right, publish blatantly false or fictional stories and then be able to publicly denounce those stories and point out the fact that they were fiction.</p>
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<p>But the money was so good. He built an empire instead.</p>
<blockquote><p>Well, this isn't just a Trump-supporter problem. This is a right-wing issue.</p>
<p>The post-fact era...</p>
<p>When we were coming up with headlines it's always kind of about the red meat. Trump really got into the red meat. He knew who his base was. He knew how to feed them a constant diet of this red meat.</p>
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<p><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/none-republican-republican_debate-presidential_candidate-gop-president-smtn557_low.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/none-republican-republican_debate-presidential_candidate-gop-president-smtn557_low.jpg?width=350" class="align-center" width="350"/></a><a href="https://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/directory/r/republican_debate.asp" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<blockquote><p>We've tried to do similar things to liberals. It just has never worked, it never takes off. You'll get debunked within the first two comments and then the whole thing just kind of fizzles out.</p>
<p>We have some people working on next steps in the fake-news industry, and that came from that whole discussion. We had purchased several domain names that sounded legitimate. ... More local news sort of stories. The idea was to make the sites look as legit as possible so the home page is going to be local news and local forecast, local sports, some obituaries and things of that nature, and then the actual fake news stories were going to be buried off the home page.</p>
<p><strong>You're talking about the future of this (fake-news business) which looks more insidious because it's more real?</strong></p>
<p>I can promise you that it's not going to go away. It's even going to grow bigger and it's going to be harder to identify as it kind of evolves through these steps. ...</p>
<p>Some of these people that we ... bait is probably the right word — are often — ...They're not the safest crowd.</p>
<p><strong>You're making money through the ads?</strong></p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>We have a whole nation of media-illiterate people.</p>
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<p><a href="http://static.snopes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/snopes-fake-news-sites.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://static.snopes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/snopes-fake-news-sites.jpg?width=450" class="align-center" width="450"/></a><a href="http://www.snopes.com/2016/01/14/fake-news-sites/" target="_blank">image source</a></p> Fake news disguised as opiniontag:atheistnexus.org,2016-11-24:2182797:Topic:27202882016-11-24T03:02:07.803ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>Yet another way to spread fake news, post it as an opinion piece. The case in point, a mainstream paper promotes disinformation in its headline, while complaining of fake news elsewhere at the same time. If you pretend it's opinion, no fact checking needed.</p>
<p>Fake news spreads mostly by people reading the headline. Few read the entire article. Many share based on the headline. Even if you didn't share the fake news headline, it will have left an impression as news from a respected…</p>
<p>Yet another way to spread fake news, post it as an opinion piece. The case in point, a mainstream paper promotes disinformation in its headline, while complaining of fake news elsewhere at the same time. If you pretend it's opinion, no fact checking needed.</p>
<p>Fake news spreads mostly by people reading the headline. Few read the entire article. Many share based on the headline. Even if you didn't share the fake news headline, it will have left an impression as news from a respected source. That alone will influence your perception of what's normal, will have shifted the Overton Window for you.</p>
<p><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/washington-post-fake-news-lomborg-climate-e13681c350f8#.am7kc2w9q" target="_blank">Washington Post embraces ‘fake news’ by printing debunked climate misinformation</a></p>
<blockquote>Running opinions that haven’t been fact-checked amounts to normalizing the fake news they decry.<p>“Trump’s climate plan might not be so bad after all,” blasted an attention-grabbing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-climate-plan-might-not-be-so-bad-after-all/2016/11/21/f8c37aa8-acef-11e6-a31b-4b6397e625d0_story.html?utm_term=.ad3f134fcea2" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="_blank">Washington Post headline on Monday</a>.</p>
<p id="e132" class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure">First, how exactly are readers to know the Post is publishing something it hasn’t fact-checked? <span class="font-size-3" style="color: #ff0000;">Would the Post run a disclaimer acknowledging the piece has not been fact-checked and may be false? Of course they wouldn’t. Yet the disclaimer would be accurate whereas the article itself is not. <strong>Such is the Orwellian world we live in now.</strong></span></p>
<p>Second, as a new piece on fake news by the Post’s own fact-checker explains, everybody has “shared something based on the headline without actually reading the link.”</p>
<p>The goal of much, if not most, fake news is simply to spread a false headline far and wide.</p>
<p>... vastly more people see the headline of any story than actually read much of the content.</p>
<p>So potentially millions of people could have seen the Post’s absurd headline, “Trump’s climate plan might not be so bad after all” without knowing it comes from an opinion piece that has not been fact-checked, written by a widely debunked writer. [emphasis mine]</p>
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<p>Lomborg, the most widely DEBUNKED climate denier.</p>
<p><a href="https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/1091/1*3gdw69H2h7cWgwrqgFmK8Q.jpeg" target="_blank"><img src="https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/1091/1*3gdw69H2h7cWgwrqgFmK8Q.jpeg" class="align-center"/></a></p> Twitter and made up storiestag:atheistnexus.org,2016-11-19:2182797:Topic:27194562016-11-19T03:59:14.786ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/11/why-journalists-love-twitter" target="_blank">Why Journalists Love Twitter</a></p>
<p><a href="https://images.currentaffairs.org/2016/11/bird-1024x648.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://images.currentaffairs.org/2016/11/bird-1024x648.jpg?width=450" width="450"></img></a> You've probably heard twitter trends cited on TV news. Emily Robinson describes how Twitter manufactures news, which is then magnified by other media, and hence seemingly validated.</p>
<blockquote><p>Using Twitter as a prism through which to examine and report…</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/11/why-journalists-love-twitter" target="_blank">Why Journalists Love Twitter</a></p>
<p><a href="https://images.currentaffairs.org/2016/11/bird-1024x648.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.currentaffairs.org/2016/11/bird-1024x648.jpg?width=450" class="align-center" width="450"/></a>You've probably heard twitter trends cited on TV news. Emily Robinson describes how Twitter manufactures news, which is then magnified by other media, and hence seemingly validated.</p>
<blockquote><p>Using Twitter as a prism through which to examine and report the world creates a narrow and distorted impression of reality.</p>
<p class="p5">Far from being some kind of lofty online manifestation of the “public square,” Twitter has become the digital equivalent of a stall wall in a public high school bathroom, one in which Neo-Nazis and Communists compete with one another for the most obnoxious Sharpie doodles.</p>
<p class="p3">Thus presenting tweets as evidence of some national or global trend (rather than as a trend on a social media platform) is several shades of problematic. Inevitably, if we take trending hashtags for actual trends, we will be dealing with a biased sample: we are looking at what is popular <i>among people who spend time on Twitter</i> rather than among people more broadly.</p>
<p>Twitter allows commentators to follow only those whose opinions they wish to consume, and to receive instantaneous praise from their own followers.</p>
<p>It’s a wonderful place to reaffirm your beliefs, and it’s so easy to do so on <strong>a platform designed to allow you to tailor the information you receive to what you want to hear, or what you know you’ll agree with</strong>.</p>
<p>And while Twitter amplifies new voices, it does not seem to expand worldviews.</p>
<p>The BernieBros story showed <strong>how news can be manufactured in an age of Twitter punditry</strong>: a writer grabs a few stray tweets and produces an article declaring them a nationwide event. Other writers, sharing both the first writer’s political persuasion and constant need to emit content, issue commentaries on the phenomenon, citing the first writer’s article as their source. Pundits quote pundits who quote tweets. Then there are more tweets, then additional punditry. <strong>At no point is the story checked against the real world</strong>: it is solely a dialogue between <i>The New Yorker</i>, <i>The Atlantic</i>, and Twitter.</p>
<p>Thus there are real-world political consequences to this type of shoddy reporting; we at least know that it can filter into a presidential primary. There’s a feedback loop between the media and political elite, and <strong>Twitter provides a convenient means of fabricating stories to further particular interests</strong>.</p>
<p>It can be harder to ascertain motive when all of this back-and-forth occurs online.</p>
<p>On Twitter, with its veneer of equality, it can be difficult to determine who is doing what for which reasons.</p>
<p>Multiple kinds of journalistic dysfunction are enabled by Twitter.</p>
<p>While the inhabitants of Twitter may constitute a comparatively small fraction of the American public, they make a comparatively large fraction of the country’s noise. To the extent that it escapes the Internet and poisons us all, their obsession with the insignificant could very well be significant. [emphasis mine]</p>
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<p></p> Acceptable Discourse - Foundational Changetag:atheistnexus.org,2016-11-18:2182797:Topic:27193882016-11-18T23:19:52.293ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/28/obama-reckons-with-a-trump-presidency" target="_blank">Obama Reckons with a Trump Presidency</a></p>
<p>Obama and his political director David Simas, discuss our new media ecology. The continuum of acceptable discourse has changed. Facebook and Twitter give social permission to "disseminate misinformation, wild conspiracy theories, to paint the opposition in wildly negative light without any rebuttal".</p>
<blockquote><p>... Simas…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/28/obama-reckons-with-a-trump-presidency" target="_blank">Obama Reckons with a Trump Presidency</a></p>
<p>Obama and his political director David Simas, discuss our new media ecology. The continuum of acceptable discourse has changed. Facebook and Twitter give social permission to "disseminate misinformation, wild conspiracy theories, to paint the opposition in wildly negative light without any rebuttal".</p>
<blockquote><p>... Simas said..."This creates <strong>a whole new permission structure</strong>, a sense of social affirmation for what was once thought unthinkable. This is <strong>a foundational change</strong>.”</p>
<p><strong>The new media ecosystem “means everything is true and nothing is true</strong>,” Obama told me ... “An explanation of climate change from a Nobel Prize-winning physicist looks exactly the same on your Facebook page as the denial of climate change by somebody on the Koch brothers’ payroll.</p>
<p>And Trump understands the new ecosystem, in which facts and truth don’t matter. You attract attention, rouse emotions, and then move on. You can surf those emotions. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/2DwxeRmxZZGOACuyVG9sYAJZV06d9GG6py9pFTPeK0chBtHqHpwW6-ynojlrQNg3J4DjESvv0Qg0k*8zZDLgTKAg02JJCCS2/newmediaecosystemcaptioned.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/2DwxeRmxZZGOACuyVG9sYAJZV06d9GG6py9pFTPeK0chBtHqHpwW6-ynojlrQNg3J4DjESvv0Qg0k*8zZDLgTKAg02JJCCS2/newmediaecosystemcaptioned.jpg" class="align-center" width="450"/></a>captions mine</p>
<p>Importantly, these amoral anti-rational permission changes overtake discourse in other media. It's as if this voice of Id is louder than all other voices now, so loud that the Overton window on <em>all</em> political discourse drastically and irrevocably shifted.</p> By making money on fake news, did European teens throw US election?tag:atheistnexus.org,2016-11-17:2182797:Topic:27191112016-11-17T09:33:47.829ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>In Veles, a central Macedonia town, teenagers have been making money by creating a hundred fake news Facebook sites. Facebook clicks by easily mislead US conservatives were the Nigerian Prince email scam of this election. But instead of US individuals losing thousands of dollars to scammers, we lost our political <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">sanity</span> bearings for fraction-of- penny payoffs.…</p>
<p></p>
<p>In Veles, a central Macedonia town, teenagers have been making money by creating a hundred fake news Facebook sites. Facebook clicks by easily mislead US conservatives were the Nigerian Prince email scam of this election. But instead of US individuals losing thousands of dollars to scammers, we lost our political <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">sanity</span> bearings for fraction-of- penny payoffs.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/colbert-blasts-facebook-helping-trump-win-allowing-fake-news-flourish" target="_blank">Colbert Blasts Facebook for Helping Trump Win by Allowing Fake News to Flourish</a></p>
<blockquote><p>“A lot of people think that Donald Trump won because of Facebook—...,” "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert began.</p>
<p>"... because Facebook is full of fake news stories that get shared widely without being fact-checked," he added. "Like ‘FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide,’ or ‘Bill Clinton’s Sex Tape Leaked.'"</p>
<p>An astounding 44 percent of adults say they get their news from Facebook, but just who is fulfilling this need? "It turns out that 100 different sites came from teenagers in one small Macedonian town who were looking to make money online and found that '<strong>the best way to generate shares on Facebook is to publish sensationalist and often false content that caters to Trump supporters</strong>,'</p>
<p>"Over the past year, the Macedonian town of Veles (population 45,000) has experienced a digital gold rush as locals launched at least 140 U.S. politics websites," Buzzfeed <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/how-macedonia-became-a-global-hub-for-pro-trump-misinfo?utm_term=.vx9NWKDGEg#.jx70azPXyR">reported</a> on Nov. 3. "These sites have American-sounding domain names such as WorldPoliticus.com, TrumpVision365.com, USConservativeToday.com, DonaldTrumpNews.co, and USADailyPolitics.com. They almost all publish aggressively pro-Trump content aimed at conservatives and Trump supporters in the U.S. The young Macedonians who run these sites say they don’t care about Donald Trump."</p>
<p>The Macedonian teens' motivation for this activity is purely economic.</p>
<p>Colbert explained. “As of today, Facebook will restrict these fake news sites. <em>Now</em> they’re going to restrict them. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is one example of how the characteristics of a medium can inherently bias toward lies. It's one example of how the kind of business model used to fight prejudice by progressive organizations like The Southern Poverty Law Center is obsolete and media illiterate.</p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/YmEteape79s7BsH3ppPs-u*o7XlwPkKrvV8BGeF47FgJ2Vejy*1KVD-fhpCKjhvy921MNPQT-KLlIFC1p2hni8XWL4iDtIIL/macedoniamap.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/YmEteape79s7BsH3ppPs-u*o7XlwPkKrvV8BGeF47FgJ2Vejy*1KVD-fhpCKjhvy921MNPQT-KLlIFC1p2hni8XWL4iDtIIL/macedoniamap.jpg?width=273" class="align-center" width="273"/></a><a href="http://orientalreview.org/2015/03/03/the-future-of-the-balkans-runs-through-macedonia-i/" target="_blank">image source</a></p> Do you vote with your eyeballs?tag:atheistnexus.org,2016-09-17:2182797:Topic:27093932016-09-17T04:26:51.893ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>The idea that US citizens have already voted for Trump because they're drawn to sensational, low brow <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">"reality"</span> fiction TV and media posts instead of sober investigative reports and science programs isn't new. But Matt Taibbi takes it further in <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/stop-whining-about-false-balance-w440228" target="_blank">Stop Whining About 'False Balance'</a>.</p>
<p>Media consumers vote with their…</p>
<p>The idea that US citizens have already voted for Trump because they're drawn to sensational, low brow <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">"reality"</span> fiction TV and media posts instead of sober investigative reports and science programs isn't new. But Matt Taibbi takes it further in <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/stop-whining-about-false-balance-w440228" target="_blank">Stop Whining About 'False Balance'</a>.</p>
<p>Media consumers vote with their eyeballs, he says. Blame consumers for "ever-dumber political coverage".</p>
<blockquote><p>Everyone wants to blame reporters for the rise of Donald Trump. How about the media consumer?</p>
<p><strong>Media consumers voting with their eyeballs for ever-dumber political coverage creates the biggest imbalance in reality</strong>,…</p>
<p>There are two basic ideas of how the press is supposed to operate. One is that the system works best when reporters are free, independent and annoying, giving the public as much information as possible, so that people may sort things out for themselves.</p>
<p>The other is that information is inherently dangerous, and the public is too stupid to be trusted with too much of it. Throughout history there has always been a plurality of people who will believe this.</p>
<p>Whether it's keeping "Fuck the Police" off the airwaves or news of the collectivist famine out of <i>Pravda</i>, the idea is the same: People can't handle stuff.</p>
<p>Anyone who tries to argue that there's insufficiently vast documentation of Trump's insanity is either being willfully obtuse or not paying real attention to the news… The outrage is all out there, in huge quantities. It's just not having the predicted effect.</p>
<p>… investigative reports on the mechanics of political influence are also exactly the sort of thing that media audiences routinely ignore, unless by some lucky accident they happen to be caught up in the horse-race drama of a Campaign Reality Show.</p>
<p>…Trump getting elected. … if it happens, it's not going to be because <i>The New York Times</i> allowed a few reporters to investigate the Clinton Foundation. It'll be because we're a nation of idiots, who vote the same way we choose channels: without thinking. [emphasis mine]</p>
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<p><a target="_self" href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/la2V-cBKomrTwxnQKWbr3EMnfnhZY5g101J6NrShnosTDwvsrjQI4Js52A6Qx5nsiWoaxhO9p-ZoUtKzkwLvjQffb6i0h6Kl/medialikes.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/la2V-cBKomrTwxnQKWbr3EMnfnhZY5g101J6NrShnosTDwvsrjQI4Js52A6Qx5nsiWoaxhO9p-ZoUtKzkwLvjQffb6i0h6Kl/medialikes.jpg?width=350" width="350"/></a><a href="http://www.nemejo.com/post/91854358681/blindly-chasing-the-likes-on-social-media-via" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/culturebox/2016/09/nyt_public_editor_says_false_balance_isn_t_a_problem_is_also_guilty_of_it.html" target="_blank">false balance accusations against the New York Times</a> aren't about their right or duty to cover Clinton's possible conflicts of interest while Secretary of State with the Clinton Foundation. It's about giving the same apparent weight to such accusations as to tRumps' documented lies, a court case against him for fraud and racketeering, a child rape suit, and blatant ties to racist organizations.</p>
<p>Isn't it special pleading to excuse journalists and news organizations of responsible reporting on the grounds that people don't enjoy reading those stories? Why should journalistic integrity devolve to ratings, as if only monetary considerations matter?</p>
<p>Eyeball voting - the idea that the consumer attention, easily captured by the orienting response to flashy visuals and loud bangs, is equal to what you do in the voting booth - <span style="color: #993366;" class="font-size-3">does that make sense to you?</span> After a stressful day of work, should your instinctive response to cute cats, explosions, and personal drama on TV or social media have the same weight as your vote for president? Should you be blamed for Trump's rise because you don't pay enough attention to intellectually dense content on media biased against intellectually dense content?</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://photoshopcontest.com/images/fullsize/mvzn1nzjpswxvvxv5xg9o7wzwzuna7ca3vw2.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://photoshopcontest.com/images/fullsize/mvzn1nzjpswxvvxv5xg9o7wzwzuna7ca3vw2.jpg?width=350" width="350"/></a><a href="http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/133005/eyeball.html" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<p>I concede that there has been coverage of tRump's "insanity", and that it hasn't had the expected effect. But overall coverage, including alternative media, isn't the same as a false balance narrative in a given mainstream media article.</p> Planned Propaganda Empiretag:atheistnexus.org,2016-08-29:2182797:Topic:27068502016-08-29T21:05:50.663ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/are-donald-trump-stephen-bannon-and-roger-ailes-cooking-post-election-media-empire" target="_blank">Are Donald Trump, Stephen Bannon, and Roger Ailes Cooking Up a Post-Election Media Empire?</a></p>
<p>Preparing for tRump loss in September, the Alt-right is brewing an extremist propaganda empire.</p>
<blockquote><p>The frightening possibility of a Trump TV network combining the extremism of Breitbart News and Fox News.</p>
<p>After Trump loses,…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/are-donald-trump-stephen-bannon-and-roger-ailes-cooking-post-election-media-empire" target="_blank">Are Donald Trump, Stephen Bannon, and Roger Ailes Cooking Up a Post-Election Media Empire?</a></p>
<p>Preparing for tRump loss in September, the Alt-right is brewing an extremist propaganda empire.</p>
<blockquote><p>The frightening possibility of a Trump TV network combining the extremism of Breitbart News and Fox News.</p>
<p>After Trump loses, don’t be surprised to see Bannon join forces with Trump and Roger Ailes (the former Fox News guru deposed for engaging in sexual harassment of employees who recently <a href="http://prospect.org/article/will-ailes-jump-trump%E2%80%99s-troubled-campaign-train" target="_hplink">jumped aboard</a> Trump’s sinking ship) to create a new right-wing media conglomerate — Trump TV or Trump Media — linking Breitbart News to a new cable network that will almost make Fox News look tame and responsible. <strong>Together, Trump, Ailes and Bannon would run their media empire to advance their common goals</strong>: gaining political influence, massaging their massive egos, moving the Republican Party further to the right, attacking Democrats and liberal ideas, and <strong>promoting a neo-fascist agenda combining xenophobia, racism, sexism, government-bashing, and anti-immigrant nativism</strong>.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/20877980465_12fbc1c4c4_z.jpg"><img class="align-left" src="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/20877980465_12fbc1c4c4_z.jpg"/></a></p>
<p><strong>Although it has the word “news” in its corporate name, Breitbart News is not a news-gathering enterprise.</strong> It does not <em>report</em> the news. It does not <em>investigate</em> the news. It does not <em>comment</em> on the news. It <em>manufactures</em> news. </p>
<p><strong>It is ... a propaganda organization.</strong> To be even more straightforward, <strong>Breitbart News traffics in lies in order to advance its ultra-right wing agenda.</strong> Under its founder, <strong>Breitbart News invented scandals and then fed them to Fox News. Ailes' operation broadcast these fake news stories, which the mainstream media picked up, giving them credibility they didn't deserve.</strong></p>
<p><strong>When Breitbart ... found the truth inconvenient, he simply made stuff up and packaged it as “news.”</strong> This included posting videos that were edited in ways that gave viewers a totally misleading view of what actually occurred. These weren’t errors or mistakes. They were conscious lies.</p>
<p>... Martin and I looked closely at Breitbart’s <strong>approach to manufacturing scandals and injecting them into the mainstream media. We can expect that formula</strong> — <strong>which</strong> Breitbart pioneered, Fox News perfected, and <strong>Bannon took even further — to be reflected in Trump’s increasingly bizarre campaign between now and November, and to serve as the template for a new media operation that Trump, Ailes and Bannon may launch soon</strong> after Clinton delivers her inaugural address in January. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote> Is Mass Media All Lies?tag:atheistnexus.org,2016-08-21:2182797:Topic:27047002016-08-21T18:09:03.468ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>Mat Tafibbi makes the point that US mass media has lost so much credibility that no one believes even the most horrendous political revelations. Extreme polarization as either bash Trump or bash Hillary shills, means that Republicans dismiss Trump scandals as garbage and Democrats dismiss Hillary scandals as garbage. Mainstream media can no longer tell the truth and be believed.…</p>
<p></p>
<p>Mat Tafibbi makes the point that US mass media has lost so much credibility that no one believes even the most horrendous political revelations. Extreme polarization as either bash Trump or bash Hillary shills, means that Republicans dismiss Trump scandals as garbage and Democrats dismiss Hillary scandals as garbage. Mainstream media can no longer tell the truth and be believed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/matt-taibbi-on-the-summer-of-the-media-shill-w434484" target="_blank">The Summer of the Shill</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Commercial news shows now are subsisting on audiences of <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/fox-news-oldest-tv-news-audience-cnn-youngest-in-2015/">mostly older viewers</a> who tend to enjoy programming that simply bashes whatever party it is they’ve grown to hate over the years, be they Republicans or Democrats. The median age of both Fox and MSNBC viewers is over 60.</p>
<p>"<strong>Garbage, lies, propaganda, repetitive and boring</strong>," <strong>is</strong> how a <a href="http://jimromenesko.com/2012/09/10/young-people-regard-news-as-garbage-and-lies/">University of Texas researcher described</a> t<strong>he perceptions of young people vis a vis the news</strong>.</p>
<p>Not just occasionally but all the time now, private news organizations are doing the work that political parties used to have to pay for in the form of ads.</p>
<p>This is a problem because if there ever comes a time when you want to convince your own audience of hard truths,…</p>
<p>In the same way that Fox used to (and probably still does) save on reporting and research costs by simply <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/3/1/1069337/-Jon-Stewart-exposes-RNC-collusion-memo-to-Fox-News-on-economic-talking-points">regurgitating talking points from the RNC</a>, blue-leaning cable channels are running <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-s-conspiracy-theories-aren-t-far-outside-gop-mainstream-n628191">segments and online reports</a> that are increasingly <a href="https://trumpconspiracies.democrats.org/">indistinguishable from Democratic Party messaging</a>.</p>
<p>…if the "MSM" devolves completely into a … situation <span class="font-size-3">where the major media splits into Trump Sucks or Hillary Sucks outlets</span>. Forget about the fact that it's boring. From now on, <span style="color: #ff0000;" class="font-size-3">how will we know if a real scandal hits?</span></p>
<p>… stories usually must be picked up by outlets across the spectrum to have an impact. That happens less and less in the partisan age.</p>
<p><strong>Media power comes from trust and respect, and both are eroded quickly if you only ever give people what they want to hear.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Right-wing audiences</strong>, almost irrespective of source, <strong>already discount most scoops about Republicans</strong>. That means <strong>even potentially devastating stories</strong>, like the <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/316341058/Donald-Trump-Jeffrey-Epstein-Rape-Lawsuit-and-Affidavits#fullscreen">troubling sexual misconduct lawsuit</a> against <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/30/the-billionaire-pedophile-who-could-bring-down-donald-trump-and-hillary-clinton.html">Trump and the infamous Jeffrey Epstein</a> involving a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/who-is-jeffrey-epstein-a-study-of-the-man-linked-to-worlds-of-celebrity-politics-and-royalty-9954397.html">13-year-old victim</a> and an adult witness, <strong>will be dismissed out of hand</strong> as just more politicized coverage.</p>
<p>… Fox's coverage has been so overwhelmingly one-sided that it has lost forever the ability to convince non-conservatives of anything. [order changed, emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.thecommentator.com/system/articles/inner_pictures/000/003/813/thumb/times_square2.jpg?1371637888"><img class="align-center" src="http://www.thecommentator.com/system/articles/inner_pictures/000/003/813/thumb/times_square2.jpg?1371637888&amp;width=450" width="450"/></a><a href="http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3813/poll_majority_of_americans_express_distrust_of_mainstream_media" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<p>Who do you trust to tell truthful news?</p> Talk Radio Destroys Media Credibilitytag:atheistnexus.org,2016-08-18:2182797:Topic:27038762016-08-18T04:50:56.837ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/conservative-radio-host-admits-right-wing-media-created-monster-doesnt-believe-facts" target="_blank">Finally, a right-winger takes responsibility for today's proud Know Nothing Party.</a></p>
<p>Conservative talk radio got us here.</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Charlie Sykes, a conservative radio host, may be the first</strong> of his ilk <strong>to take responsibility for turning the right</strong>—those who pushed Trump to the top of the…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/conservative-radio-host-admits-right-wing-media-created-monster-doesnt-believe-facts" target="_blank">Finally, a right-winger takes responsibility for today's proud Know Nothing Party.</a></p>
<p>Conservative talk radio got us here.</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Charlie Sykes, a conservative radio host, may be the first</strong> of his ilk <strong>to take responsibility for turning the right</strong>—those who pushed Trump to the top of the bill—<strong>into a crowd of fact-denying, media-mistrusting,</strong> Trump lie-swallowing, <strong>angry “monsters” who cannot be swayed by reality.</strong> He goes on record saying as much in an upcoming interview with <em>Business Insider</em>’s Oliver Darcy, who <a href="https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/764909726278836225">tweeted an excerpt</a> ahead of the full text being published.</p>
<p>“And look, I’m a conservative talk show host. <strong>All conservative talk show hosts</strong> have basically established their brand as being contrasted with the mainstream media. So we <strong>have spent 20 years demonizing the liberal mainstream media.</strong> ... at a certain point <strong>you wake up and you realize you have destroyed the credibility of any credible outlet out there. And I feel, to a certain extent, that we are reaping the whirlwind at that</strong>,” he continued. “And I have to look in the mirror and ask myself, to what extent did I contribute?"</p>
<p>Donald Trump basically makes ... whatever claim he wants to make. And <strong>everybody knows it’s a falsehood.</strong> The big question of my audience, <strong>it is impossible for me to say that, ‘By the way, you know it’s false.’</strong> And they’ll say, ‘Why? I saw it on Allen B. West.’ Or <strong>they’ll say, ‘I saw it on a Facebook page.’</strong> And I’ll say, ‘the New York Times did a fact-check.’ And <strong>they’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s the New York Times. That’s bullshit.'</strong> There’s nobody. <span class="font-size-3"><strong>You can’t go to anybody and say, ‘Look, here are the facts</strong>.</span>’”[emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/04/05/us/05RADIOweb1/05RADIOweb1-master768.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/04/05/us/05RADIOweb1/05RADIOweb1-master768.jpg?width=450" width="450"/></a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/us/politics/donald-trump-wisconsin-radio.html" target="_blank">6 Talk Radio Hosts, on a Mission to Stop Donald Trump in Wisconsin</a></p>
<p>Six top hosts of Wisconsin’s talk radio culture turned on Trump.</p>
<p>Marshall McLuhan, so many decades ago, warned us that radio is a "tribal" medium, which heightens emotion and interferes with reason. It's a natural fit for the "righteous" anger fueled right.</p>
<p>In sum,</p>
<blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>All conservative talk show hosts</strong> ... <strong>have spent 20 years demonizing the liberal mainstream media.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>...we are reaping the whirlwind at that,...</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3"><strong>You can’t go to anybody and say, ‘Look, here are the facts</strong>.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/tjJbxEln7ggLjW-GVApziEnxVeT4u9xT577*Cxr0u5V4m6AurnFhOiAql8w-u*DdeVqdKa4df*vXjyGR*QRpoYniVm3TSSkY/demonizing.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/tjJbxEln7ggLjW-GVApziEnxVeT4u9xT577*Cxr0u5V4m6AurnFhOiAql8w-u*DdeVqdKa4df*vXjyGR*QRpoYniVm3TSSkY/demonizing.jpg?width=450" width="450"/></a></span></p>
<p></p> Mass Media and a US Autocrat's Risetag:atheistnexus.org,2016-08-10:2182797:Topic:27024482016-08-10T03:39:31.482ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/how-trump-owns-media?utm_content=buffer1387c&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" target="_blank">How Trump Owns the Media</a></p>
<p>Marvin Kalb says the media are boosting a would-be autocrat.</p>
<blockquote><p>In this unusual presidential campaign, <strong>we are witnessing a frightening departure in American democracy — the rise of a European-style autocrat — and the media, especially cable television…</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/how-trump-owns-media?utm_content=buffer1387c&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" target="_blank">How Trump Owns the Media</a></p>
<p>Marvin Kalb says the media are boosting a would-be autocrat.</p>
<blockquote><p>In this unusual presidential campaign, <strong>we are witnessing a frightening departure in American democracy — the rise of a European-style autocrat — and the media, especially cable television news, has been painfully complicit</strong>.</p>
<p>… , he could become America’s first autocratic president. <strong>Based on his own statements,</strong> often contradictory, <strong>he could decide to go around the established institutions of governance</strong> and create an unorthodox, one-man presidency. It is not coincidence that the word "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-how-fascism-comes-to-america/2016/05/17/c4e32c58-1c47-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html">fascist</a>" has often been used to describe his ascent to power.</p>
<p>Thanks in part to technology, the media’s role as a gatekeeper has collapsed. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://f.tqn.com/y/grammar/1/W/P/B/0/-/Getty_media-8307825.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://f.tqn.com/y/grammar/1/W/P/B/0/-/Getty_media-8307825.jpg?width=350" width="350"/></a><a href="http://grammar.about.com/od/alightersideofwriting/a/mediagloss.htm" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<blockquote><p>But technology is not the only culprit. Our political institutions are out of touch with the American people.</p>
<p>As we have seen this cycle, <strong>the speed with which outside challengers can maneuver unencumbered by the hierarchy and weight of traditional institutions</strong> leaves the political establishment dangerously exposed.</p>
<p>… <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/23/why-the-pr-industry-is-sucking-up-pulitzer-winners/">1 in 5 reporting jobs</a> in 2014 were in D.C., New York or Los Angeles — a ratio that was 1 in 8 ten years earlier. The consolidation of the news media to these three cities has led to <strong>a national media insulated from the realities of most Americans</strong>. Meanwhile, the collapse of local news institutions means that Americans don’t have independent eyes and ears in Washington DC. A recent Pew study shows that <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/01/07/in-21-states-local-newspapers-lack-a-dedicated-reporter-keeping-tabs-on-congress/">21 of 50 states</a> do not have a single local daily newspaper with its own dedicated Congressional correspondent.</p>
<p>… <strong>Donald Trump</strong>, …. He <strong>has effectively become the executive producer of all our cable news channels</strong>, using a combination of Twitter outbursts, in-person appearances and phone-ins to <strong>dominate and shape what little remains of our national conversation</strong>.</p>
<p>With the collapse of the newspaper advertising model and the economic pressure on the television news model increasing, we need new business models to create and protect local news.</p>
<p>… the looming threat to American democracy. … is Trumpism. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://nonsmokingladybug.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/trump-cartoons.jpg?w=670"><img class="align-center" src="https://nonsmokingladybug.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/trump-cartoons.jpg?w=670"/></a><a href="https://nonsmokingladybug.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/trump-the-monster-we-created/" target="_blank">image source</a></p>